news/arts & entertainment
Interview
Zendaya, The “Shake It up!”
c eleBrITY
I nTervIeW
by Kam
Williams
B
orn in Oakland, Ca., on
Sept. 1, 1996, Zendaya
grew up around the
California Shakespeare Theater in
nearby Orinda, where her mother
worked as the house manager. In
addition to training at the theater
company’s student conservatory
program, and later performing in
numerous stage productions, she
helped her mom seat patrons and
sell raffle tickets to benefit the
organ i zation.
While attending the Oakland
School for the Arts, Zendaya
starred as a young Ti Moune in
“Once on This Island” at the
Berkeley Playhouse before enjoy-
ing her breakout role as the male
character Joe in “Caroline, or
Change”
at
Palo
Alto’s
TheatreWorks. She subsequently
honed her craft at both the
California
Shakespeare
Conservatory program and the
American Conservatory Theater,
adding such classics by the Bard
of Avon as “Richard III,”
“Twelfth Night” and “As You
Like It” to her stage credits.
Zendaya, by the way, means “to
give thanks” in Shona, a Bantu
language native to Zimbabwe.
Besides acting, the versatile
young talent has served as a fash-
ion model for Macy’s, Mervyns
and Old Navy, and as one of the
back-up dancers in a Sears com-
mercial featuring Selena Gomez.
Zendaya currently resides in
Los Angeles with her family and
Midnight , her pet Giant
Schnauzer, and her interests
include singing, dancing and
clothes designing. Here, she talks
about “Shake It Up!” her hit
Disney Channel sitcom where she
co-stars opposite Bella Thorne as
Raquel “Rocky” Blue, half of a
comedic duo trying to dance their
way to superstardom.
kam Williams: Hi Zendaya,
thanks for the interview.
Zendaya: No, thank you, Kam.
It is my pleasure.
kW: What interested you in
Shake It Up?
Z: Well, I would say that Shake
It Up was a chance for me to do
two things I really love: acting
and dancing.
kW: Tell me a little about
the show?
Z: It’s a buddy comedy
based around dance. It’s
about two best friends
Rocky and CeCe who live
out their dream as back-
ground dancers on a show
called Shake It Up
Chicago. They have to
navigate life as young
teens going to school
and dancing on the
show.
kW: How would
you describe your
character, Rocky?
Z: Rocky is such
a sweet girl. She
really cares for people
and always wants to help
her friends. She is a very good
student who really works hard,
and she is a dedicated friend to
CeCe who often talks her into
doing
things
they
shouldn’t. Rocky is a bit more shy
and unsure of herself, and some-
times does more following than
she should.
kW: What message would you
say the show is trying to deliver?
Z: Shake It Up definitely teach-
es kids about the importance of
reaching for your dreams and set-
ting high goals. It also teaches great
lessons about friendship and family.
kW: What do you enjoy the most:
acting, singing, dancing or model-
ing?
Z:
Wow! I couldn’t choose
between all of those things! I
looooove acting and dancing on
Shake It Up, and I am currently in
the recording studio working on
my music. And one of my dreams
is to walk down the runway dur-
ing fashion week!
kW: When is your debut album
being released, and what type of
music is on it?
Z: Well, I am not sure of when
my album will be released but my
music has a lot of different
sounds. I’m a hip-hop/R&B girl
at heart, but I love pop music
as well, and I even have an
affinity for country music. So
I would say my music might
have something for everyone.
kW: Is there any question no
one ever asks you, that you wish
someone would?
Z: I’m never asked what I love
to do outside of the arts. My
answer would be sports. I was
actually supposed to be a basket-
ball player, not an actress. My
parents had me playing basketball
on competitive teams when I was
in kindergarten. Even though my
heart belongs to the arts, I’m a
tomboy at heart, too.
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Gregoire
continued from page 1
her office,’’ Gregoire’s website says.
But, in fact, less than 16 percent of work-
ers at the governor’s office are minorities.
This summer, Gregoire has hired Carol
Albert as her director of external affairs and
Fred Olson as her deputy chief of staff. She
moved Marty Loesch to chief of staff. She
also named Bernie Warner as her secretary
of corrections. The former workers in each
position were also white.
The only two minorities in Gregoire’s cir-
cle are Eva Santos, who runs the
Department of Personnel and John Batiste,
who leads the Washington State Patrol.
By comparison, seven of Gov. Gary
Locke’s 27 cabinet secretaries were minori-
ties in 2004.
Other agencies led by elected officials
currently show a broad range of diversity
levels, with the attorney general’s office
that Gregoire once led having just 11 per-
cent minority staff. The Office of the
Insurance Commissioner shows minority
representation of 24 percent on staff.
Lillian Ortiz-Self, who chairs the state’s
Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said
Gregoire has been supportive of diversity
efforts but that her words needs to be
backed up by actions.
“It takes a lot more work than just believ-
ing in it,’’ Ortiz-Self said.
Ortiz-Self believes the state needs to
closely examine their policies and proce-
dures in hiring, such as whether recruiting
efforts are drawing in minorities and
whether those who interview candidates
have appropriate diversity training. She also
said the issue needs leadership.
“It needs to be modeled from the top
down,’’ Ortiz-Self said.
Gregoire’s decision to try and consolidate
a group of minority commissions into a sin-
gle Commission on Civil Rights also irked
members, Ortiz-Self said. The state also
country - 56 percent, up from 38 percent in
2007. That is in contrast to the general U.S.
public, whose satisfaction has dropped from
32 percent to 23 percent.
Andrew Kohut, Pew president, said in an
interview that Muslim Americans’ overall
level of satisfaction was striking.
“I was concerned about a bigger sense of
alienation, but there was not,” Kohut said,
contrasting the U.S. to many places in
federal investigators citing a greater risk of
attacks by a “lone wolf” or small home-
grown cells. Such terror warnings have
stirred raw emotions as the U.S. struggles to
talk about religion in the context of terror-
ism.
Tensions erupted last summer over plans
to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site
in New York City after critics assailed it as
an insult to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs
often done by Muslims.
It is now common in U.S. mosques for
Muslims to preface public remarks by say-
ing that they know the government is eaves-
dropping but Muslims have nothing to hide.
Still, one factor behind the somewhat
upbeat sentiment of Muslim Americans is
the 2008 election of Obama, who pledged to
improve relations with the Muslim world.
Muslim Americans who vote largely identi-
fy themselves as Democrats, and fully 76
percent of those surveyed say they approve
of Obama’s job performance, compared
with 15 percent in 2007 who approved of
Bush’s performance.
On possible terror risks, about 21 percent
of Muslim Americans say there is “a great
deal” or “a fair amount” of support for
extremism in their communities, according
to the Pew survey. About 81 percent of
Muslim Americans separately say suicide
bombings and other forms of violence
against civilians are never justified in order
to defend Islam, and growing numbers also
express an unfavorable view of al-Qaida -
81 percent compared to 68 percent in 2007.
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Muslims
continued from page 1
from 40 percent in 2007, the first time Pew
polled Muslim Americans.
Asked to identify in what ways they felt
bias, about 28 percent said they had been
treated or viewed with suspicion by people,
while 22 percent said they were called
offensive names. About 21 percent said they
were singled out by airport security because
they were Muslim, while another 13 percent
said they were targeted by other law
enforcement officials. Roughly 6 percent
said they had been physically threatened or
attacked.
On the other hand, the share of Muslim
Americans who view U.S. anti-terror poli-
cies as “sincere” efforts to reduce interna-
tional terrorism now surpasses those who
view them as insincere - 43 percent to 41
percent. Four years ago, during the presi-
dency of George W. Bush, far more viewed
U.S. anti-terrorism efforts as insincere than
sincere - 55 percent to 26 percent.
The vast majority of Muslim Americans -
79 percent - rate their communities as either
“excellent” or “good” places to live, even
among many who reported an act of vandal-
ism against a mosque or a controversy over
the building of an Islamic center in their
neighborhoods.
They also are now more likely to say they
are satisfied with the current direction of the
Page 4 The Seattle Skanner
‘ When you look at their attitudes, these are still
middle-class, mainstream people who want to
be loyal to America’
Europe where Muslims have become more
separatist. “You don’t see any indication of
brewing negativity. When you look at their
attitudes, these are still middle-class, main-
stream people who want to be loyal to
America.”
The latest numbers come amid increased
U.S. attention on the risks of homegrown
terrorism. The problem has been especially
pressing for President Barack Obama, with
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., held House hear-
ings earlier this year to examine whether
American Muslims are becoming “radical-
ized” to attack the U.S., declaring that U.S.
Muslims are doing too little to fight terror.
The Associated Press reported last week
that with CIA guidance, the New York
Police Department dispatched undercover
officers into minority neighborhoods, scru-
tinized imams and gathered intelligence on
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